DOE seeks ‘caveat’ in climate change ratification pledge

The Department of
Energy (DOE) has specifically raised its concern of instituting a “caveat” or
proviso on non-impediment of energy projects and investments in the country’s
bid to ratify the Paris-sealed climate change agreement.

Energy Secretary
Alfonso G. Cusi said he defended his department’s position in Malacañang last
week, stressing that he “cannot concur with the ratification unless the issue
of the DOE on energy development is not hampered.”

The energy chief added
“I made it very clear also that the country needs adaptation – mitigation, yes
we need that, but that should not be a precondition for developed countries to
help us.”

For Cusi, the country’s
commitment under the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations
Framework on Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) has to be re-cast so it sets
more tangible priorities on a national interest rather than the Philippines
just adhering to it as a global treaty.

Adaptation, as defined
by the United Nations, could involve changing infrastructure systems and
practices so the whole world could pare the risks posed by climactic changes.

“Maybe DOE’s
concurrence is not necessary for the ratification – we just want a caveat that
DOE can continue with its energy development and that we should not be limited
with that carbon emissions reduction that was signified in the Paris
agreement,” Cusi stressed.

The Paris climate
change diplomacy pact is a pledge-and-review system wherein each nation is
expected to adopt a new pledge every five years so every country can tailor
their commitments to what they can really deliver at home.

Despite giving
countries free reign to make their own commitments toward carbon reduction
targets though, it is deemed that such flexibility has not fully cleared
“political land mines” on propounded tangible cooperation and similarly casts
shadow on how developing and climate change-vulnerable countries could be
financially aided in their actions toward mitigating global warming.

Amid his hesitation on
the deal’s ratification, Cusi sounded off that the country may still be allowed
to have access to the US$100-billion climate change funding that the developed
countries had pledged to funnel to developing country-counterparts until year
2020.

As is the puzzle to
most of developing countries, the DOE chief is similarly perplexed as to how funding
can be availed of and how it can be allocated transparently to targeted
“vulnerable countries” – not just for climate change risk mitigation purposes
but primarily for adaptation activities.

“That’s what we want to
be cleared about also, how do we access the funds? How do they (developed
countries) help us?,” he queried.

Cusi’s plan is to sit
down with the Climate Change Commission, noting that “they have to be clear
with it, they have to clarify that with the UNFCCC on how the country can
access those funds and what are the conditions.”